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7 Ways You're Killing Your Tech

2013-10-03

The first few days with a new piece of tech are filled with wonder and trepidation. You cradle your new phone like it's a newborn, you frantically clean your laptop of fresh fingerprint smudges, you put your e-reader to bed in a fort of pillows and bubble wrap.

And then one day, without warning, the honeymoon is over. You start carelessly tossing your laptop into your backpack, you whirl your headphones around like a lasso, you leave your phone on for four months at a time. At one point or another, we're all guilty of a few tech care crimes.

For those looking to change, we've compiled this list of the most common poor choices everyone makes with their electronics.

1. Resting Laptops on Beds, Carpets or Bare Skin

Without a cooling pad or a proper ventilation area, your laptop will overheat when used for too long. So when you wrap it up in your blankets and watch Netflix for an entire weekend? That's not good. Overheating can decrease your battery life and, in some cases, cause serious damage to your computer and potentially catch fire.

2. Transporting Electronics Without a Case

If you're carrying tablets, laptops and other electronics around without a protective case, you're basically asking for busted screens and dented corners. Your electronics should be housed in a quality bag or case where they won't be jostled around throughout the day. And to all of those carrying their laptops by the screen: stop.

3. Improper Cord Maintenance

Charger cords — particularly those made by a certain fruit related tech company — are extremely sensitive and fray easily. Be sure not to wrap them too tightly or yank them out of the wall. When you're transporting them, wrap them loosely like you would an extension cord. This rule also applies to headphones. Don't wrap them too tightly around your iPod. If you do, make sure they aren't plugged in at the time as the pressure could damage them.

4. Never Powering Off

Be honest, when was the last time you actually let your laptop stay off for more than 30 minutes? Many of us are guilty of keeping electronics in a constant state of sleep and never turning them off.

To improve the life of your battery, you should periodically power cycle it. To do this, run your battery all the way to zero and charge it, while off, until full again.

5. Using Household Cleaners on Electronics

Using household cleaning products like Windex on your devices is a bad idea, as the chemicals eat away at the coating on your screen.

6. Improperly Ejecting Drives

USB hard drives and thumb drives should always be ejected properly from your computer before you rip them out. Especially with hard drives, if the disk is spinning when you remove it you could experience data loss.

7. Never Backing Up

We know, we know, you're getting around to it. But backing up your data isn't exactly something you can wait on, as you never know when a major problem could arise. Frequently backing up your data to a hard drive or onto the cloud will save you one enormous potential headache.